‘Good morning, Sean. What time is it in the Big Apple?’

Morrison groaned. ‘Almost five o’clock,’ he said. ‘What’s wrong, Liam?’

‘I need you back here, Sean.’

‘When?’

‘Today.’

Morrison groaned again. ‘You don’t ask much, do you?’ He didn’t ask why because he knew the security forces weren’t averse to tapping Hennessy’s phone, legally or otherwise.

‘I’d like you to come straight here, to my house,’ Hennessy continued. ‘I’ll explain everything when you arrive. How long do you think it’ll take you?’

‘Ten hours or so, Liam, a lot depends on the timing of the direct flights.’ His voice was clearer now. ‘I’ll call you if there are any problems.’

Hennessy thanked him and replaced the receiver. He picked up the wires and flash-bulb that Willie had left on his desk and toyed with them, deep in thought.

Nguyen drove the Renault to a Chinese take-away and bought six portions of plain boiled rice, three of roast pork and three of roast chicken. He told the Hong Kong Chinese behind the counter that he didn’t want any sauce or anything, just meat. The food came in the same foil containers with white cardboard lids that he’d used in his own shop in Clapham. He asked for a carrier bag, put the food in the back of the van and then drove to a pub in the countryside to buy ice. The landlord of the first place he tried said he didn’t have enough for his own use, never mind to sell to someone who wasn’t even a regular. The man behind the bar at the second pub was more sympathetic to Nguyen’s story of a wife with an arthritic leg which the doctor said would be helped if she lay with it in an ice bath. He sold him three carrier bags full of ice-cubes shovelled from a large clanking ice-machine for a nominal sum and Nguyen drove back to the guest-house as quickly as he dared. He parked the van, put the packs of ice and one of the bags of fertilizer into two holdalls and carried them inside. Mrs McAllister was dusting the hall and she smiled when she saw him. ‘Lovely day, isn’t it?’ she said.

He smiled, nodded and slipped by her. He put the fertilizer on the bathroom floor, dropped the ice into the bottom of the shower and listened at the door until he heard the landlady go into the kitchen. He slipped downstairs and refilled the holdalls. He carried them back up the stairs, walking softly on the balls of his feet close to the wall so that he made the minimum of noise. The less he saw of the landlady and the other guests, the better.

He entered his room and slid back the brass bolt before placing the bag on the bedcover and unzipping it. He unpacked the bag carefully, first removing the two glass bottles of concentrated acids, which he took one at a time into the bathroom and put on the floor by the shower.